The ABSOLUTE Spider-Man Review And Improvement Formula!

My favorite Marvel character of all time is none other than the web-slinging, witty nerd known as Spider-Man. The words of Uncle Ben himself, "With great power, comes great responsibility." is more than likely etched into the brains of nearly everyone at this point, even if they don't know what Spider-Man is, in which case you're not from this solar system and we need to get you in the labs for research purposes, maybe even over at Parker Industries.

Now, like many, I was super excited when there was word that a new Spider-Man game was going to be released. I remember sitting through Batman Arkham Knight as I pretty much cleared everything except for the highest scores on challenge maps and I began to think to myself "Damn, you know what? If they even remotely made a Spider-Man game this good, I would be set for life." The very next year at that E3 there was the first trailer for Marvel's Spider-Man and I remember looking up with the expression that God, the universe, or some kind of wishful entity had took the time to make this an actual thing, because truthfully it's long overdue. Not that there weren't an good Spider-Man games before this one, there certainly are, but we're talking about the quality and love put into it.

At first, I didn't know what to think when Insomniac had been announced as the developers because everyone assumed it would be by Sucker Punch, but they are waist deep in their own other anticipated endeavors. Insomniac wise, I grew up playing Spyro, I played some of the Rachet and Clank games, so I knew it would be a match made in heaven. They had previously released Sunset Overdrive which further made it obvious that Insomniac would make an excellent Spider-Man experience. Leading up to the game I watched and delved into every little piece of information that I could find and whenever information dropped, I was dropping with it. I pre-ordered my copy and waited anxiously as there was no release date, as many of us do for our favorite titles, and then the day finally came, the day of release. September 7th of 2018 had to be the day I realized how a game could make a grown man forget about the outside world. I started my game up at 12:00am sharp and it was digital so by then the full game had already been downloaded. Needless to say, I stared at the beautiful home-screen, put it on the hardest difficulty known as Spectacular at the time, and I played and played and played and played, until...there was nothing left to do.

I was so used to playing games like Assassin's Creed, Batman Arkham Series, and Devil May Cry that when they mixed every formula from those games into one big pot, I was prepared to eat it, and it was the best damn meal I'd had in a while, like feeding myself and my childhood self. So as you can imagine, I beat it, then I over beat it when I platinumed the game in literally four days time. After that, I kinda just remained basking in the full confidence that I mastered the game and all of its mechanics. Since then, the game has released pretty good DLC but nothing too mind blowing or even necessary to get, especially when you factor in that they've recently been putting in free suits throughout the updates that, in my opinion, are better than the ones we've been getting for the paid DLC, but it's more so about additional story content in those regards I guess. They also added a new difficulty called Ultimate that I started playing NG+ with. Now, after months of playing the game and using my video game six-sense or spider-sense in this case, I've compiled a list of all of the game's pros, cons, needed adjustments, and some of my personal inclusions that I think could make a better Spider-Man experience.

I won't spend a lot of time breaking down each and every pro and con, as that would literally take me forever and this list turned out much longer than expected, especially for the cons after I further analyzed and critiqued with lots of nitpicking and blatantly obvious flaws as well. After the pros and cons, it comes with a list of features I would personally like incorporated.

(Disclaimer: I'm sure there's plenty of other things to both worship and complain about, but these are my main points. They are not in any order, just typed from my brain and added to.)

PROS:

-Cinematic visuals (Insomniac's major strength with games).

-Playable as Peter (Not done enough).

-Playable as MJ (Fresh, but questionable).

-Playable as Miles (Expected but not this way).

-Iconic Villains! (The villains most Spider-Man people are familiar with are present. Sinister six!)

-Peter kept all his information since high school on a single flash drive

-The negative suit is irrelevant (Literally shown in the trailer as something that has purpose to the story, it doesn't.)

-No Miles suit (I get that he may be Spider-Man in the future games, but can we at least play with it? The Spider-Verse film is exploding.)

-JJJ bitches all game long, but then goes missing once you beat it. (Kinda good, but kinda not good.)

-Aunt May "knew" Peter was Spider-Man, but didn't say for how long or when, and why suggest Peter and MJ to date again, knowing the risk of it. (I get she was on death's doorstep, but..maybe she was the one who needed holotapes.)

-His mask can "hone in on muffled sounds" but it's like he can't hear sometimes.

-There's no reason they shouldn't be aware where Peter lives (Can't they just track him?Especially Sable.)

-Web redirect (While swinging you can shoot webs in either direction manually and shift to that direction automatically).

-Narrow alleys (Tighter alleys to get through or between tighter places besides water towers and small work tunnels.

-Manual pole swinging

-Web loop (Pole swinging but while using a web to do it and it can launch you in either direction, vertically or horizontally).

-Ground acrobatics (Wouldn't it be nice to click and flick the analog or something and be able to do flips? Or even use the D-pad for those which only feature options for the photo camera.)

-Choose your air tricks (A bunch of tricks can be listed and you pick which ones to assign in every direction.)

-Fall damage

-Ride the train without a cut-scene

-Swim underwater

-Water skidding (Spider-Man's boot heels can help him temporarily glide water or even use assistance from boats like he is jet skiing or something.)

-Indoor civilians (See them inside the interiors of building windows living lives and react when Spider-Man is on the wall or window.)

-Object grabbing (It would be nice to just pick up and throw cars, crates, light poles, fire hydrants, mail boxes, and whatever else by lifting it.)

-Comic collection (A section where you can read through at least some of the Spider-Man comics in full after collecting or unlocking them).

-Crime/Street puzzles (Not EXACTLY like the Riddler or anything, but something there to feel like a crime solver as well).

-Wall bouncing (It would be dope to bounce between narrow alleys while swinging and wall running.)

-Web pounce (Jump on an enemy and web them up stealth-like).

-Face webbing (Web an enemy's face or mouth and take them out stealth-like).

-Web rope (Pick off targets and hang them from light poles or building edges like a rope dart ability).

-Retractable webs (Your webs can retract, maybe to help you stealth-fully grab things like keys or notes smaller items of the sort because I now realize weight affects this one a lot.)

-Web yank on the ground without immediate throw (Kind of like in Devil May Cry where you can pull enemies into you from afar or you to them).

-Grab enemies by hand (Spider-Man 2 or even Prototype kind of grabbing option).

-Web cocoon (An ability where Spider-Man, well...he cocoons himself from damage, but it also can be used on enemies to permanently subdue them).

-Trip Mines that are Web Bombs

-Suspension Matrix slams enemies (Maybe it can reverse the gravity temporarily to make enemies plunge into the ground, rendering them unconscious?)

-Web wall (You shoot it like a web bomb but the webs sprawl across wall to wall and can temporarily block enemies from entering or leaving).

-Swing yells (Optional of course, but I would love to hear the loud "Woooo!!" and stuff when swinging at high speeds).

-Multi-take-down (The take-downs can be linked to two or more enemies for a cool animation effect or no animation for it to happen in real time).

-Dodge multiple threats at once

-Better physics (Maybe he stumbles a bit sometimes especially when damaged and it affects his swinging and momentum. Maybe it can even cause him to fall off a while swinging or face-plant into walls if it's critical enough).

-More aggressive cop calls (Cops she be tuning into telecommunications with more desperation, "We got a 10-84 with multiple hostages within the line of fire!!!" or something of that nature to make me feel they need immediate help).

-Spider-sense mode (Allows Spider-Man to use heavy focus in combat to slow time, deal better damage, do better take-downs, utilize remaining gadgets wisely, or in stealth situations it can help with all forms of movement within a specific range that you can upgrade).

-The Suit UI aids you (The UI for the suit should show you how many enemies are around, what their status is, their foot prints and most probable path of travel, their heart rate, and maybe which gadget will work better for that enemy type).

-Advanced focused Web Shot (Not only can you focus the web, but it also webs individual parts of enemies. Maybe their leg or arm or shoulder can be glue to something by webbing).

-Web Cushion (When falling major heights, this can also aid you or falling civilians when you can't catch them in time).

-Better dive animation (When jumping from a building he should leap toward when you click R3 and go into the dive. Additionally, we should be able to control the momentum, maybe with web wing assistance?)

-Autograph signing for fans (Add kids, super fans, or just people who want more than just a handshake or picture. Maybe group selfies too).

-Some people on the social media feed are actual people you save in crimes and get the name of.

-Switch Between Peter and Spider-Man on the fly (Maybe there's specific alleys that you run down and it goes into an automatic animation or cut-scene or brief loading screen if they so please that allows you to Switch between the two).

-Access to contacts at will (Call up and maybe help Miles learn to swing or fight better, take MJ on dates or gather intel, mess around with JJJ as a caller like he did in the trailers, etc).

-Running through stores and apartments and cafes (The cafe scene that never happens in game could have brought so much innovation but maybe it was too difficult to figure out at the time. They shouldn't have teased us with it to begin with honestly).

-Seamless day and night cycle/raining at night as well

-3D models where we can view the cast of game characters

-More destructible environments (Fire hydrants spewing water, light poles falling, cars take damage or flip over if they are ones you can pick up).

-Access to sewers (Maybe nothing too extreme like going the entire NYC sewage system, but maybe you cam drop down into grates or under sewer lids to hide).

-Access to vents (Even if you only have to do it for stealth missions, this is essential. It was apart of some of the story, but not for your own usage).

-Swing across the bridge to other islands or on boats with designated areas to islands or helicopters going in those directions.

-Kidnapped hostage car chases

-Web blast (It shoots a web, much like the kind used when stopping the falling crane or helicopter in that well known story mission, BUT it does it to enemies. Sort of an Impact Web, but on steroids and much like the previously mentioned Web Wall as well).

-Multiple suit powers at once that can be swapped on the fly.

-An entire upgrade tree dedicated to stealth

-Miscellaneous missions (Find a cat and take it to the owner, a stolen bike, a wallet, a child, etc, etc. Anything small that can help receive XP or even help Peter pay his rent).

-Switch between Peter, Miles, and MJ at any time and do activities related to them.

Regardless if you managed to read through all of that or not, there's definitely some truths in there and things that could amplify the experience of, well, any Spider-Man game that's to come even after Insomniac's take on it. All I'm saying is, these should be the innovations of NOW and not later. My best guess, which is pretty obvious, is that there will be a sequel to Insomniac's Spider-Man, but on the next gen console. That being said, I do in fact believe that this kind of stuff can be added with no surprise on that kind hardware, with no downgrades or sacrificing to make ends meet for final product of the game. I don't care how long it would take because as explained in the beginning of this, I had no idea this game was even coming or being conceived, so I personally won't mind waiting half a decade if that's what it would take to have even a fragment of what I mentioned.

We'll just have to see what happens from this moment on, but until then, speak your thoughts on the matter!